deceptive

1 tending or having power to deceive in his deceptive answer about the vehicle's history, the salesman said that the used car had never been hit by another car Synonyms beguiling, deceitful, deceiving, deluding, delusive, delusory, fallacious, false, misleading, specious Related Words artful, crafty, cunning, devious, foxy, guileful, shady, shifty, slick, sly, sneaking, sneaky, subtile, subtle, trick, trickish, tricky, underhand, underhanded, wily; inaccurate, incorrect, wrong; bewildering, confounding, distracting, perplexing, puzzling; ambidextrous, crooked, defrauding, dishonest, dissembling, double-dealing, duplicitous, faithless, fast, fraudulent, knavish, lying, mendacious, untrustworthy, untruthful; bogus, counterfeit, fake, feigned, forged, jive [slang], phony (also phoney), sham, spurious; insidious, perfidious, treacherous; ambiguous, circuitous, equivocal, evasive; artificial, backhanded, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, two-faced Near Antonyms candid, direct, foursquare, frank, free-spoken, open, openhearted, outspoken, plain, plainspoken, straight; clarifying, elucidative, explanatory, illuminating; revealing, revelatory; honest, trustworthy, truthful Antonyms aboveboard, forthright, nondeceptive, straightforward

2 given to or marked by cheating and deception a mail-order firm indicted for deceptive business practices Synonyms bent [chiefly British], crooked, dishonest, double-dealing, duplicitous, fast, fraudulent, guileful, rogue, shady, sharp, shifty, underhand, underhandedRelated Words unconscionable, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous; deceitful, deceiving, deluding, delusive, delusory, false; artful, beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, foxy, slick, sly, subtle, wily; defrauding, devious, furtive, slippery, sneaking, sneaky, trickish, tricky; insidious, perfidious, treacherousNear Antonyms conscientious, decent, ethical, honorable, just, scrupulous, upright; forthright, straightforwardAntonyms aboveboard, honest, straight